Nexen Vice-President Pierre Alvarez confirmed that has sold the division, but had nothing to say about the details of the transaction.

The tremendous amount of natural gas supplies has cut the need to physically transport the raw material, and so Nexen has been looking to offload the division for some time.

Nexen says it will focus on its core businesses, especially crude oil and shale gas production.

The natural gas marketing unit has never done well for Nexen, and selling it to Goldman Sachs is a good move, as it offloads and asset that does nothing for them, while turning it over to Goldman, who should be able to make it work far better than it has in the past.